Various forms of sample carrying devices are known in the art. For example U.S. Pat. No. 3,713,985 (Astle) describes a testing device which includes a plurality of receptacles or wells interconnected integrally by a horizontal support member. The device includes vertical support members or legs and several of the receptacles contain a range of biological control reagents in an essentially dry form. The receptacles are sealed by a seating material such as plastic film or aluminum foil by heat or pressure.
Still other fonns of devices are known for use on automated analyzers. As an example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,298,570 (Lillig) describes a tray section that has a plurality of webs. The tray section is carded by a turntable, which also receives sample containers. A sample is pipetted from a sample container into a well in the tray section, where additional dilutions of the sample are made. The diluted samples are then taken by an automated pipette to a reaction cell for analysis.
As described in the concurrently filed application (Ser. No. 08/048,708 filed Apr. 16, 1993, now abandoned entitled "Sample Handling System", and identified above (and which is not admitted to be prior art with respect to the present invention by its mention in this Background), there is disclosed in such application a novel and inventive system which is useful with a sample device or segment that is moved about by the system to accomplish the required analysis. However, neither the Lillig or Astle device is suitable for use with such a system because, for example, neither device includes structure that could be readily gripped by a transport apparatus.
Further, such system is adapted to be used in a capillary electrophoresis analyzer that performs, for example, immunosubstraction capillary electrophoresis analyses. Such analyses require reagents, including liquid reagents, to be stored in the device. Although Astle describes a sealing material, sealing of the type of Astle tends to allow leakage between adjacent reservoirs, particularly with a liquid reagent, and thus would be unsatisfactory for analytical techniques such as capillary electrophoresis, particularly where adjacent reagents are different.
Reagent mixing within the reservoirs of a sample device is also desirable as, for example, in an immunosubtraction capillary electrophoresis analysis. Both the Lillig and Astle devices, however, would require, for example, an external stirring device to accomplish effective mixing of the reagents.
Thus, there is a need for a sample-carrying device that is suitable for use in an analyzer wherein the sample-carrying device is transported within the analyzer to accomplish a desired analysis. There is also a need for a sample carrying device that can be more surely sealed to prevent leakage of reagents, such as liquid reagents, between adjacent reservoirs. There is also a need for a sample carrying device with improved mixing capabilities within the device reservoirs.